The Will
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: Link is summoned by the king because of a strange law, and Link soon gets to the bottom of it. I know it's short, but read it anyway. Special thanks to ops MichelaE and PerrinsAx for accidentally giving me the idea after a discussion about wills. Please r


The Will  
by Martial Arts Master  
Zelda and all related characters are copyrighted by Nintendo. Enough legal stuff. On with the story.  
  
***  
  
It was seven years after the point in time to which Link had been returned to after defeating Ganondorf. Link had led a peaceful life living amongst the Kokiris, with only his memories to remind him of his adventure. Now, Link had grown into an adult again, and the six Sages had again been called to protect their temples. Link was still living in with the Kokiris. Suddenly a messenger raced up to Link.  
"Link, I have a message for you," the messenger said.  
Link was surprised.  
"A message? For me?" Link said. "That's strange. Who sent it?"  
"The king of Hyrule," replied the messengers.  
Link and all the Kokiris around him gasped in shock.  
"But...but...what could the king possibly want with me?" Link said.  
"I don't know," the messenger replied, "but he said it was urgent that you come to his castle immediately."  
"All right," Link said, shrugging. The messenger raced off to tell the king that Link was coming. Most of the Kokiris were excited that the king of Hyrule himself had asked Link to come to his castle. Suddenly Link felt someone shove him to the ground. He looked up and saw none other than the "great" Mido with a scowl on his face.  
"Man, how'd you get to be so gosh darn LUCKY?!" Mido shouted. "How come you're the one who the king invites? He didn't invite any of us! I mean, he could at least had invited ME!"  
Link didn't want to hear Mido get into a ranting fit, so he rushed out of the forest, across Hyrule Field, and into the castle. He was stopped at the entrance hall by a guard.  
"Halt! Who goes there?" the guard asked.  
"My name is Link," Link replied. "I have come by the king's invitation."  
The guard nodded and said, "Yeah, I remember the king sending a messenger for you. Ok, you can go on."  
Link rushed passed the entrance hall and into the throne room. The king was pacing around.  
"I've come, your highnesss," Link said while bowing.  
"Hm? Oh yes, you must be Link," the king said. He stopped pacing and continued to say, "Thank goodness you've come. I have a problem that needs deliberating, and Zelda told me that, during a prophetic dream, her future self told her that you could be counted on to solve any problems that might come up."  
"Well, I think that might have been an exaggeration," Link said modestly, "but I'll do what I can. How can I help?"  
"I'm not getting any younger, and I need to write a will," the king said. "But there's a problem. A law, which was written before I was king, says that when the king, being me now, die, my will has to leave my wealth either to my family or to distribute it amongst my people, but NOT both."  
"Who came up with that crazy law?" Link asked.  
"How should I know?" the king demanded. "Probably some crazy old man who somehow got a job as lawmaker at the time the law was written. Anyway, I need you to help me decide. I can't bring myself to cheat my daughter out of her future wealth, but neither can I bring myself to cheat my people out of that same wealth."  
"Let me see the paper on which that law was written on," Link suggested.  
"All right, just a minute," the king said. He went to a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. He gave the piece of paper to Link. Link began reading the paper. Suddenly he looked up.  
"Your highness, the solution to the problem is obvious," Link said. "The line you thought had said 'but NOT both' actually says 'but not NOT both'. Two nots or nos in the same sentence in a row equal a yes. So you CAN leave both your daughter and the people in the will!"  
"What? Let me see that paper!" The king demanded, snatching the paper from Link. He read the paper and said, "You're right! Thanks!" "No problem," Link said, and ran out of the castle. He was going to track down the crazy man who had written that law. He traversed around Hyrule until he found a man laughing to himself.  
"What's so funny?" Link asked.  
"Well, can you keep a secret?" the man asked, but before Link could answer the man said, "That was a rhetorical question, of course you can."  
Link rolled his eyes but allowed the man to continue.  
"I was the lawmaker before the current king was king, and for a practical joke, I snuck in a law that had two nots in the same sentence just to confuse the king!" the man said, and then he collapsed in a fit of laughter.  
That wasn't all he collapsed from when Link got through with him...  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com. 


End file.
